Page 28 - aruba-today-20190713

A28 SCIENCE
Saturday 13 July 2019

EPA restores broad use of pesticide opposed by beekeepers

By ELLEN KNICKMEYER numbers are declining.”We
Associated Press understand farmers want
WASHINGTON (AP) — The to have every tool in their
Environmental Protection toolbox,” when it comes to
Agency will allow farmers to curbing insects that dam-
resume broad use of a pes- age crops. “But the ... pes-
ticide over objections from ticides are just decimating
beekeepers, citing private beneficial insects,” Colopy
chemical industry studies said. An environmental
that the agency says show group charged the EPA
the product does only low- with sidestepping the usual
er-level harm to bees and public review in reapprov-
wildlife. ing broader use of the pes-
Friday’s EPA announce- ticide.
ment — coming after the “The Trump EPA’s reckless
agriculture industry ac- approval... without any
cused the agency of un- public process is a terrible
duly favoring honeybees blow to imperiled pollina-
— makes sulfoxaflor the tors,” said Lori Ann Burd,
latest bug- and weed-killer director of the Center for
allowed by the Trump ad- Biological Diversity’s envi-
ministration despite lawsuits ronmental health program.
alleging environmental or Separately, the U.S. De-
human harm. The pesti- In this June 5, 2019, photo, a bee pollinates a milkweed flower at the USGS Patuxent Wildlife partment of Agriculture
cide is made by Corteva Research Center in Laurel, Md. announced without fan-
Agriscience, a spinoff cre- Associated Press fare on July 1 that it would
ated last month out of the obtained from the EPA over all others.” A federal rules for use of sulfoxaflor, stop collecting quarterly
DowDuPont merger and through Freedom of Infor- appeals court had ordered such as generally prohibit- data on honeybee colo-
restructuring. mation Act litigation by the the EPA to withdraw ap- ing spraying of fruit and nut- nies, citing budget restric-
Honeybees pollinate billions Sierra Club, and provided proval for sulfoxaflor in bearing plants in bloom, tions. Beekeepers and oth-
of dollars of food crops an- to The Associated Press, 2015, ruling in a lawsuit when pollinators would be ers used the data to track
nually in the United States, show sorghum growers in brought by U.S. beekeep- attracted to the flowers, losses and growth in U.S.
but agriculture and other particular had pressed se- ing groups that not enough would limit harm to bees. honeybee colonies.
land uses that cut into their nior officials at the agency was known about what it She called it “an important Other Trump administration
supply of pollen, as well as for a return to broad use of did to bees. and highly effective tool for decisions have upheld mar-
pesticides, parasites and sulfoxaflor. EPA Assistant Administrator growers.” ket use of the weed-killing
other threats, have them Sorghum growers regard Alexandra Dapolito Dunn Michele Colopy, program glyphosate, which is now
on a sharp decline. The Uni- honeybees as just another said Friday that new indus- director of the Pollinator the target of thousands of
versity of Maryland said U.S. “non-native livestock” in try studies that have not Stewardship Council, one consumer lawsuits over al-
beekeepers lost 38 percent the United States, lobby- been made public show a of the beekeeping groups leged harm to people ex-
of their bee colonies last ist Joe Bischoff said in one low level of harm to bees that had successfully sued posed to it, and shelved
winter alone, the highest 2017 email to agency offi- and other creatures be- to block sulfoxaflor, said the an Obama-era decision to
one-winter loss in the 13- cials, and by cutting threats yond the targeted crop EPA limits weren’t enough ban the pesticide chlorpy-
year history of their survey. to the bees, “EPA has cho- pests. to protect bees and oth- rifos as a threat to human
Emails and other records sen that form of agriculture Dunn said EPA’s newly reset er beneficial bugs whose health.q

Former astronaut helps break flight record over poles

By MARCIA DUNN 46-hour, 39-minute and versary of humanity’s first
AP Aerospace Writer 38-second polar circum- moon landing. Virts’ former
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. navigation flight ended space station crewmate,
(AP) — A former astronaut where it began. They set Russian Gennady Padalka,
landed back at NASA’s the duration and speed re- was on the first two legs
Kennedy Space Center on cords in a Qatar Executive of the flight. Padalka, the
Thursday after helping to Gulfstream G650ER aircraft. world’s space champ with
shatter a pair of records for Their average speed 879 days in orbit, left during
a round-the-world airplane was 535 mph (861 kph). a fueling stop. Virts said in a
flight over the North and Dubbed “One More Orbit,” tweet that the three stops
South poles. Terry Virts was the flight paid homage were “NASCAR pit-stop in-
part of the team whose to next week’s 50th anni- tense.” Each stop lasted
less than an hour. The plane
departed from the former
landing strip Tuesday at
9:32 a.m. — the same liftoff
time as Apollo 11’s Saturn
In this Thursday, July 11, 2019 photo provided by Chris Garrison, V rocket on July 16, 1969.
Col. Terry Virts, former International Space Station commander, It crossed over the North
center with sunglasses, and British pilot Captain Hamish Harding, Pole, stopped in Kazakh-
third from right, pose with other crew members in front of their stan and then Mauritius,
Gulfstream aircraft after their record-breaking around-the-world crossed above the South
flight over the North and South poles, landing at the Kennedy
Space Center in Florida. Pole, stopped in Chile, and
Associated Press then returned to Florida.q